Public Ministry requests preventive detention against military man accused of killing a young man in Mirador Sur

SANTO DOMINGO. – The Public Ministry requested preventive detention as a coercive measure against a lieutenant colonel of the Dominican Republic Army, accused of causing the death of a young woman during an event that occurred last Sunday, January 25 in the Mirador Sur park, in the National District. The defendant was identified as Samuel Elías Céspedes Valdez, who is facing charges for the death of Katherine Yubelkys Aquino, with whom he had a romantic relationship. According to the accusation, the young woman lost her life after being shot with a firearm during an argument between the two while they were in the aforementioned park.

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According to the request presented by the court prosecutor Santa Matilde Reyes Valenzuela, head of the Internal Affairs Department of the National District Prosecutor’s Office, police officers went to the scene after receiving the alert of the event, confirming the death of the victim. The defendant was arrested in flagrante delicto, after his constitutional rights were read to him, and he was subsequently transferred to the corresponding department for legal purposes. The body’s removal was carried out by a forensic doctor from the National Institute of Forensic Sciences (Inacif), who determined that the cause of death was a firearm projectile wound, whose trajectory is incompatible with an accidental event, as alleged by the accused. The Public Ministry indicated that, based on the forensic analysis, it can be established that it was a voluntary homicide. During the intervention, the weapon used was voluntarily surrendered and remained in the custody of the authorities for investigation purposes. In that sense, the prosecuting body legally qualified the facts as voluntary manslaughter, in violation of articles 295 and 304, numeral II, of the Dominican Penal Code, and requested the imposition of preventive detention as a coercive measure against the accused.